The family of Nancy Guthrie, the missing 84-year-old mother of “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie, announced Tuesday that they will offer a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to her recovery or an arrest.
In a tearful video message 24 days after Nancy Guthrie disappeared, Savannah Guthrie said the family realized their mother may no longer be alive but still hoped to bring her home. Guthrie pleaded for anyone with morsels of information to come forward so the family “can either celebrate a glorious miraculous homecoming or celebrate the beautiful, brave and courageous and noble life that she has lived.”
“We need to know where she is,” she said in the video. “We need her to come home.”
The high-profile case has drawn intense interest from people across the world who have followed closely as investigators sought to uncover evidence, news reports surfaced about purported ransom notes, and Savannah Guthrie and her siblings pleaded for help. It took nearly two weeks for federal officials to describe a suspect they were pursuing. Even then, after expansive searches through the remote Catalina Foothills neighborhood of Tucson where Nancy Guthrie resided, there were no signs of her.
Savannah Guthrie said Tuesday that her family would also donate $500,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which helps families put in the same position as them. On Instagram, Guthrie wrote that the reward would be subject to the same criteria as the FBI’s $100,000 reward, paid for information that leads to Nancy Guthrie’s recovery or an arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance.
“We’re hoping that the attention that has been given to our mom and our family will extend to all the families like our who are in need,” Savannah Guthrie said.
Guthrie, 84, spent the evening before she disappeared at the home of her daughter, Annie, for a game night. She returned home around 9:45 p.m., Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said at a news conference.
The next day — Feb. 1 — her family realized she was missing and called 911 around noon. A sprawling search ensued.
By nightfall, word had spread that the mother of the “Today” show host had disappeared, kicking off a storm of media coverage. In several Instagram videos, Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings pleaded with their mother’s captor and said they would pay for her return. They also asked the public to pray and to report any useful information to law enforcement. They told their mother they loved her.
The White House and President Donald Trump pledged support for the investigation. Thousands of calls flooded the FBI’s tip line. But the case remained at a standstill.
Then, on Feb. 10, the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Office revealed they had recovered footage from Guthrie’s doorbell camera. They released photos and video showing an “armed individual” wearing a ski mask and backpack walking up to the front door. That night, the sheriff’s office said they had detained and questioned someone in the case but released the man soon after. The office later told reporters in an emailed update that it had executed two search warrants and was processing evidence from those searches but did not specify where they happened.
Two days later, officials described the person seen in the doorbell camera footage as a suspect — a man around 5 feet 9 inches tall with an average build. He wore a black 25-liter “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack in the video from the doorbell camera, according to the FBI.
After that description went public, tips kept pouring in. Authorities again searched the area around Guthrie’s home and recovered additional evidence, including multiple gloves that sent for lab analysis. On Tuesday, the sheriff’s office said that there were no DNA matches found in federal records for a sample from the gloves found closest to Guthrie’s house, about two miles away.
Investigators are also attempting to locate Guthrie’s pacemaker, according to the sheriff’s department, and are working with Walmart, which sells the same model of backpack the suspect was seen wearing. Detectives canvassed local businesses to show owners the doorbell camera footage in case someone recognized the suspect.
Over the weekend, as the investigation neared its third week, Savannah Guthrie made another plea.
“It is never too late to do the right thing, and we are here,” she said in the video, directly addressing a possible captor. “We believe, and we believe in the essential goodness of every human being, and it’s never too late.”
Days earlier, Savannah Guthrie published another post on Instagram. But instead of an address to her mother’s potential abductors or a request for help, this one was a home video.
In the footage, Nancy Guthrie and her then-young children could be seen picking flowers and giggling.
“Our lovely mom,” Savannah Guthrie wrote in the caption. “We will never give up on her. Thank you for your prayers and hope.”
Victoria Craw and Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.
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